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User: folderol

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  1. Re:Yes, there are so many alternatives! on Adobe's Next Major Creative Cloud Release Won't Support Older OSes (petapixel.com) · · Score: 1

    Some people just have to have the best (for some undefined value of 'best') whether they need it or not. Me? I just go for the minimum that will do what I want... without throwing loads of crap at me.

  2. Re:Becaue you aren't offering to do the work. on Ask Slashdot: How Do You Explain 'Don't Improve My Software Syndrome' Or DIMSS? · · Score: 1

    Your second point is far and away the most significant of all comments.
    It applies right across the board - not just software, and indeed not just humans. Look what happens when you move the cat basket!

  3. Missing the obvious? on Ultrasound Tracking Could Be Used To Deanonymize Tor Users (bleepingcomputer.com) · · Score: 1

    I don't have speakers on my computer, and the external amp is only on when I want to listen to music.

  4. Re:People say "custom-made" like it's a bad thing on Why BART Is Falling Apart · · Score: 2
    Having worked on similarly ancient high power devices. It's not just changing a single thyristor. At these power levels everything has to be critically matched and tuned. Get it wrong and the instant you draw any significant power it goes bang.

    Also, that will be part of a bank of similar units which also have to have pretty similar characteristics or one will take all the load, and guess what? Bang!

    So if you can't get or manufacture an exact replacement you'd have to replace the entire drive module.

  5. Definite improvements on The State of Slashdot: Https, Poll Changes, Auto-Refresh, Videos, and More · · Score: 1

    Last year I thought /. was headed for the cliff to oblivion.
    It seems someone not only found the brakes, but also the steering wheel.

  6. Re:Because now no one even cares about ripping DVD on Next-Gen Ultra HD Blu-Ray Discs Probably Won't Be Cracked For A While (arstechnica.co.uk) · · Score: 1

    Dunno about that. I've got CDs and DVDs I've had for years - and the machines to play them - all if perfect working order. the only reason I haven't bothered with recent DVDs is they are crap content.

  7. Phillips have a very long history if making things as difficult as possible for everyone else. Going right back to their early TVs and radios.

  8. Store nothing on Ask Slashdot: Securing a Journalist's Laptop Against a Police Search? · · Score: 2

    The parent organisation should maintain a networked data store that all it's reporters have a write only password for.
    Data is then sent via ssl. No other encryption software of any kind on the laptop.
    Absolute minimum of services and a tiny hard drive, with no swap file/partition.
    Reporters should only use a plain, single view, text editor that doesn't store parts of a working document to file, and can be made to direct send the data without ever touching the hard drive.

  9. Pah! on F-35 To Face Off Against A-10 In CAS Test · · Score: 1

    The F-35 is the 'all-in-one' printer of aircraft and equally unable to perform any of its roles most effectively.

  10. So many negative comments on MenuetOS, an Operating System Written Entirely In Assembly, Hits 1.0 · · Score: 1, Insightful
    ... says a lot about the posters, and nothing about the OS. Personally I think coders should be obliged to write at least one significant project entirely in assembler before being allowed anywhere near high level languages. You pretty quickly lean to program defensively when just the slightest error results in total melt-down.

    I bet this OS doesn't have any buffer overrun issues!

  11. Read the small print on Visual Studio 2015 Can Target Linux; Android Apps Anywhere Chrome Can Run · · Score: 1

    There is always a lock-in there.

  12. I must be doing something wrong on Apple's iPod Classic Refuses To Die · · Score: 1

    I'm still using my iRiver H320. It works perfectly, has plenty of space on the mini HD and I was able to replace the battery about a year ago.

    Nice physical buttons that can be navigated without looking.
    Standard 3.5mm plugs.
    Presents as mass storage on USB.
    Handles mp3, Ogg-Vorbis, Flac, Wav and some vid formats (can't remeber which - never use them)

  13. Intertesting on Raspberry Pi Founder Demos Touchscreen Display For DIY Kits · · Score: 1

    So much disdain, and even outright hostillity towards the Pi, yet it continues to confound its critics with its popularity.
    I wonder where the disconnect is.

  14. Typical on More Eye Candy Coming To Windows 10 · · Score: 1

    It seems ther've finally caught up with what was possible on Linux over 5 years ago. Virtual desktops too. How very, erm, usual!

  15. Um... No. on Munich Reverses Course, May Ditch Linux For Microsoft · · Score: 1

    One person, with no such decision authority, and who co-incidentally brokered Microsoft's move to Munich wants this to happen.

    I wonder why.

  16. Meh! on Is Dolby Atmos a Flop For Home Theater Like 3DTV Was? · · Score: 1

    Seems people are more interested in the tech than the actual content. If I'm listeing to speech my attention is on what the speaker is saying, not where in the room they appear to be. If it's music, I'm more interested in hearing all the instruments and the dynamics than any positioning that I wouldn't know about anyway.

    If you have visual cues then this positioning information will be more effective than playing with sound phase relationships etc. If you don't have such cues then does it matter at all?

  17. Not good enough on New Single Board Computer Lets You Swap Out the CPU and Memory · · Score: 1

    To be worthwhile, something like this has to be the first; the best; unique.

    This is none of those.

  18. Against man's stupidity... on Industrial Control System Firms In Dragonfly Attack Identified · · Score: 1

    ... the gods themselves, contend in vain. The first time I heard of this, my instant thought was that it was utter stupidity to connect any industrial process to the Internet. Since then, every comment I've heard or seen from every source follows the same idea, so why is anyone still doing it?

    The cost argument really doesn't fly. Can you imagine the firestorm of compensation claims when (not if) the first major disaster takes place?

  19. This is daft on 'The Door Problem' of Game Design · · Score: 1

    It all depends on how much real imagination you've got. I designed a text adventure many years ago for the BBC Model B. Doors were based on reality. Some opened inwards, some outwards, some had locks (and you had to get the right key). The nasty ones would swing shut behind you and you'd find there was no handle on the inside.

    There were, of course a host of appropriate messages :)

    What is far more important is that you have a game plan, room list, alternative routes/actions, and most important of all an objective.

  20. Wow! on XKCD Author's Unpublished Book Has Already Become a Best-Seller · · Score: 1

    There sure are a lot of jealous people on /. these days :(

  21. The only thing they did wrong on Inventor Has Waited 43 Years For Patent Approval · · Score: 2

    ... was not telling him to bugger off 43 yeasrs ago. That was in 1971. As a trainee I was working on aligning servo motor controls in 1967 - it used them thar new-fangled transisitor things {bloody wickless wonders}

  22. Re:What's the point? on Psychologists: Internet Trolls Are Narcissistic, Psychopathic, and Sadistic · · Score: 1

    I thought they were talking about politicians at first ... all of them.

  23. Re:It's a replica. Now under attack on Second World War Code-cracking Computing Hero Colossus Turns 70 · · Score: 1

    See it while you can. If the 'managers' of the Bletchly Park Trust get their way, Colossus and the National Meuseum of Computing will soon be made homeless. Sounds a lot like the /. situation doesn't it?

  24. Good Stuff on The Quiet Fury of Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates · · Score: 2

    This is actually quite interesting. We have now moved from 'everyone knows' to someone has actually spelled it out.

    There are a lot of ordinarly people out there who are not in the 'everyone' category and may now become aware of this.

  25. Re:And so begins the FUD on Counterpoint: Why Edward Snowden May Not Deserve Clemency · · Score: 1

    Indeed so, added to "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain"